Press release -
Rabbie's on board with Business Pledge
Rabbie’s today became the first tourism company to sign up to the Scottish Business Pledge as Deputy First Minister John Swinney helped staff to prepare one of its sightseeing tours.
The Scottish Business Pledge is a partnership between Government and business to improve productivity, workforce engagement and enshrine fairness. Rabbie’s is now the 40th company to make the pledge.
The partnership with the Scottish Government means that businesses pay the Living Wage to all direct employees over 18, are delivering on at least two other elements of the nine-part pledge, and are committed to achieving the rest over time.
Rabbie’s is a multi-award winning tour operator which organises small group trips to iconic destinations across the country.
Mr Swinney said: “The Scottish Business Pledge recognises shared goals and shared values by celebrating success and ambition and signalling a commitment to work towards a better future.
“That’s why I’m delighted that Rabbie’s has today made its pledge. As one of Scotland’s leading tourism businesses Rabbie’s is sending a strong signal to the sector about the value of fair and progressive business policies, that not only benefit employees, but lead to the kind of memorable visitor experiences that distinguish this important part of the Scottish economy.”
Rabbie’s Director of Operations Jeffrey Ferguson said: “The decision to commit to the Scottish Business Pledge was driven by the ethical principles we share across our business of equality, fairness and opportunity which we believe will result in improved productivity, employee engagement and will ultimately lead to further sustainable growth for our business.”
VisitScotland Chief Executive Malcolm Roughead OBE said: “Tourism is more than a holiday experience – it creates jobs, sustains communities and provides an international shop window for Scotland. VisitScotland is delighted to see Rabbie’s leading the way by signing up to the Business Pledge. Not only does this demonstrate the company’s commitment to its staff, but it also further highlights the importance of tourism as a major employer in Scotland, and I would encourage other tourism businesses to work towards embracing the Business Pledge.”
Background:
Scottish Business Pledge has nine components: paying the living wage; not using exploitative zero hours contracts; supporting progressive workforce engagement; investing in youth; making progress on diversity and gender balance; pursuing international business opportunities; playing an active role in the community; commitment to prompt payment; committing to an innovative programme.
More information about the Scottish Business Pledge is available at
https://scottishbusinesspledge.scot/
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
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- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business tourism in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Food and Drink 2015
- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
